The left-behind children problem is a substantial social issue in China – one that I feel strongly about. I have always been fortunate enough to spend a good amount of quality times with my parents my life, and therefore, it is difficult for me to see how more than a few million children in China are abandoned by their parents as they were forced to go to the cities for better job opportunities. Worse, some parents were addicted to drugs, gambling, and other vices, that they eventually could not take the stress of not living up to their personal or social expectations and committed suicide, leaving their children, some less than eight years old, to survive on their own.
I wanted to raise awareness on the gravity of this social issue, and subsequently, convey the message that we have to do our part to provide some assistance to alleviate this situation. The whole left-children issue is an extremely complex problem that ties to the political and socio-economic climate in China: it is a problem we could not possibly solve in the next five to ten years without a major breakthrough in governmental effort and economic breakthrough in the country. But, we can still provide some form of help to, at the minimum, improve the livelihood of these left-behind children and open some doors for them in the future. As a result, the starting point of my visual essay was to convince the audience that we could, and we should do something about this issue.
Each image in my visual essay is placed strategically to achieve different desired effects. Starting from the first image, it was the portrait of a teenage boy gazing lifelessly out of the screen to the audience. The boy’s eyes looked rather soulless, conveying the sense that he does not feel any sense of hope in life. The image has been edited slightly to make it look worn-out and pixelated. Coupled with the positioning of the boy’s face, the whole image looks as if it is a portrait for a funeral, and we (the audience) are mourning for this boy. This image then sets the tone for the entire visual essay – a depressing, despairing and dispiriting one.
The next two images are accompanied by texts that inform the audience of their backstories – why they were left behind. The young children stood emotionless in front of a blackboard, as if all of life has been sucked out of them, and one would inevitably feel at least a tinge of sympathy for these two children. These two images are chosen to be placed here to further enhance the sense of despondency that these left-behind children feel. By now, the audience would be rather immersed in this emotion, and their attention would be mostly captivated so far. But interestingly, they would not be able to come to the full realization of what this visual essay is all about. They would, at most, tangentially discern the theme of the essay without realizing the precise issue at hand. This is the other layer of attention-grabbing strategy where the audience would be eager and curious to find out what it is exactly all about.
This brings us to the next image – a statistical chart. This chart serves two primary purposes: first, it reveals the answer to the audience: the visual essay is about left-behind children in China; second, it provides numbers that expose the current state of these left-behind children so shocking that, one would invariably feel heart-broken. This then highlights the seriousness of the issue that it is not just something that we simply express our sympathy towards, but a real problem that we have to do something about.
The next few images were all visual representation of the day-to-day livelihood of the left-behind children. These images were all heart-rending and distressing, which add to the overall feeling of grief that we should have for these children. By using an emotional-driven approach, I believe the visual essay becomes rather persuasive to the audience. Another thing to note is that the subsequent image is bigger in size than the previous one. This is done to convey the sense of urgency of this social issue by showing as if the issue is coming at us. The second last image was specially chosen, and edited into black and white, to create the most impactful impression on the audience to prompt them to act – otherwise, millions of children like the one in the image have zero hope to ever improve their livelihood.
Initially, I did not want to include the last slide as it is quite a contrast to the overall gloominess of the whole essay. It contrasts too starkly with the other slides that I felt it was disturbing the entire flow of the essay, and consequently, distorts the overarching feeling I wanted the audience to leave the essay with. However, after some reflections and revisions, I come to realize that it could be a good idea to place something that is entirely opposite in spirit – positive and full of hope – to create a strong and more long-lasting impression of this topic. And more importantly, the images put across more clearly and directly the message that this essay is not just about a pity party, it is about taking concrete actions to help these children. It encourages the audience to not just indulge themselves in the whole sentiments or the giving of sympathy, but rather prompt them to take real actions based on these powerful feelings.
Overall, the readings thus far have taught me many of the concepts I employed in the “writing” of this essay. First, a visual essay can be a valid form of argumentative essays, and it can sometimes be more persuasive due to the greater amount of emotions that it can convey (a picture is worth a thousand words). This is precisely what is happening here: using emotions to present the argument more convincingly; second, the way the images are presented and structured can convey an unambiguous and straightforward argument that forms for the subject matter at hand. In this case, I carefully chose the specific images, the type of borders of the images, the color of the background, and the order of the presentation to lead the audience to my intended interpretation of the visual essay, thus achieving the desired effect.
Wong Kin
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